


Living Arrangements

by InsaneTrollLogic



Series: CW Impulse Fic [2]
Category: Impulse (Comics), The Flash (Comics), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bart crashes the CW 'verse, Family, Gen, Kid Fic, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-03
Updated: 2016-07-03
Packaged: 2018-07-19 21:31:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7378132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InsaneTrollLogic/pseuds/InsaneTrollLogic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bart Allen is stuck in the past, and barring Cisco inventing time travel in the next two weeks, team Flash needs to figure out what to do with him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Living Arrangements

**Author's Note:**

> This is stupidly fun to write. You guys have no idea. 
> 
> Mid season one because casual time travel takes all the conflict out of this story.

It’s Wells who brings it up after the fourth time he sees the gawky adolescent speedster vibrate through a wall. “We’re going to need a more permanent solution,” he says to Barry. “Control your future progeny.”

“I’m not the only one he’s been calling grampa,” Barry retorts, though Wells had a point. STAR labs recently has felt a lot less like a research facility and a vigilante operation headquarter than a half-wrecked day care. “Bart! Slow down.”

Bart Allen skids to a halt in front of them, tugging on Barry’s hands. Two weeks since Bart had come from the future, looking for a cure to the accelerated aging that had come with his speedster-enhanced metabolism. Barry is a little alarmed by how much he already adores the kid. He’s also a little worried that Bart hasn’t said a single word about how to go back to the future.

“We’regonnaruntoday,right? Youpromisedwecouldrun.”

“Normal speed,” Wells says.

Bart rolls his eyes and says at over-exaggerated pace, “I-want-to-run-with-grampa.”

Cisco rounds the corner into the lab. “Um Barry, I swear I asked you to not go supersonic when I’m trying to run these tests.”

Barry raises his hands and shakes his head. “I’ve been right here, dude. Just got off work.”

“Ididn’tgettosupersonic,” Bart says sullenly.

“Slower,” Wells orders.

“I didn’t get to supersonic,” Bart repeats.

“You definitely did something with enough force to mess with the local seismic activity.”

Bart kicks his feet, looking up to the ceiling, feigning nonchalance.

“He vibrated his molecules at such a speed that he—” Wells pauses to take of his glasses. “What’s the word? Phased through the wall.”

“First off,” Cisco says, “a _wesome._ Second, I really can’t be having people Kitty Pryde through the walls while I’m doing testing.”

“Any chance we can send him back home?” Barry asks. “Won’t having him here, like, disrupt the timeline or something?”

“While I’m incredibly touched at your faith in my abilities, we’re still talking _time travel_.”

“What Mr. Ramon is trying to say, is that the younger Mr. Allen may be stuck here for quite some time."

Barry chances a look sideways to Bart. Bart barely flinches at the prospect of being stranded in the past, doesn’t say a word about wanting to go home, just grabs for Barry’s hand and says, “Graaaaaampa, let’s run.”

Barry ruffles his hair. “Why don’t you suit up and give me a second to talk to Cisco and Dr. Wells.”

Bart darts out of the room.

“You do realize he’s going to take that as a literal second, right?” Cisco says.

“I know.” Barry flashes into his own suit. “And I also know Wells is right. STAR labs is great and all, but barring the invention of time travel...”

“Give me a few weeks before you write off the time travel,” Cisco says. “I’m working on it.”

“Yes,” Wells replies. “If anyone can crack time travel, my money would be on Mr. Ramon.”

Barry nods, pasting a smile on his lips as Bart zips back into the room. “Grampa! You’retakingforever!”

“Got to go.” Barry pulls up his cowl. “Apparently I’m running late again.”

* * *

Barry steers them out of the city. The last thing he needs is to start showing up with a sidekick whose voice hasn’t dropped yet. The Flash is still mostly an unknown quantity in the city and nothing sways the public away from trust like child endangerment.

But at the same time Barry knows that if Bart is anything like him—and the more he gets to know Bart, the more he’s sure Bart is a lot like him—he won’t be able to keep Bart off the streets forever.

The suit he’d travelled back from the past wearing is already too small on him, but he’d aged roughly a year between his first hour in the past and his first day before they managed to cure his hypermetabolism. Barry finds himself wondering about a mask, or at least goggles to hid his face and maybe prevent him from taking a bug to the eye at three hundred miles an hour.

Bart’s quiet as they run, which is alarming in itself. His face is pinched like it hasn’t been since his first frantic moments in the past, so Barry taps him lightly on the shoulder and lets them spiral into a game of high-speed tag. He’s quicker than Bart but not by a huge margin and Bart’s mastered vibrating through solid objects while Barry has to dodge around trees. It goes on almost twenty minutes until Barry ends it by wrapping the kid in a hug rather than tagging him again.

He feels the quiet sobs more than sees them. He rubs a circle in Bart’s back until the kid finally recovers long enough to choke, “Don’tyouwantmehere?”

Barry keeps a hand of either of Bart’s shoulders as he draws back to look the kid in the eyes. “You’re a surprise, yes, but why would you ever think I didn’t want you here?”

“Ciscosaidhewasgoingtosendmeback.”

“Send you _home_ ,” Barry corrects. “He’s just trying to get you back to your family.”

The flow of words that come next are too jumbled for Barry to make out, but he gets the gist of them. He takes a deep breath. Feels like he’s about to make a huge step without preparation. “Bart. It occurs to me that none of us have asked. Do you want to go back?”

* * *

On the way back to the labs, Barry buys several gallons of ice cream and leaves Bart to his inevitable brain freeze. He finds Cisco and Wells in an animated discussion about time travel. Barry speeds into his street clothes and says, “Hey guys. I think this all became kind of moot.”

Both Cisco and Wells turn to look at him.

Barry rubs his hands together. Bart hasn’t told any of them much about his life in the future, but the sheer panic in the kid’s eyes would have been enough to make Barry think twice even before hearing Bart’s answer. “He doesn’t want to go back. So we’re not sending him back.”

“Barry,” Wells says slowly, “You realize that keeping someone from the future could have serious repercussion on the timeline.”

Barry’s hands curl into fists on their own accord. “I don’t care.”

He stares Wells down for a good few minutes, neither of them willing to concede. Finally, it’s Caitlin who breaks the stalemate. She’s been running tests on Bart pretty much non-stop since the rapid aging incident, terrified that he’d relapse. “You know inventing time travel probably wouldn’t be the best way to get him home anyway,” Caitlin says. “I found some weird protein markers in the blood work. Stuff I’ve never seen before. So my guess is not so much future as…”

“Alternate universe,” Cisco finishes, smile growing on his face. “Which is even cooler.”

“I’m not messing with alternate universes any more than time travel.” Barry folds his arms over his chest. “Bart stays here.”

Wells sets his mouth in a thin line. “Then it appears we have some work to do.”

* * *

It’s hard trying to get a handle on Bart’s age for things like paperwork. Barry spends a good three hours on the phone with Felicity trying to explain the situation and if it weren’t for the fact that Bart is clearly a kid, he’d probably have Oliver Queen on his doorstep demanding to interview the potential threat.

Barry’s not sure where the kid is, but when Felicity asks for a picture, he calls Bart’s name and he appears almost instantly. Barry takes a quick picture, texting it to Felicity as Bart crowds his shoulder chattering about the retro technology asking for one of his own.

Barry’s laughing as he fights to get the phone back to his ear.

“I swear he’s more hair than person,” Felicity says over the line. “Adorable, though. I’m going to frame this for the Arrow Cave. You’ll want to take a lot of these. I’m told they grow up fast even when they don’t have hypermetabolism.”

He reaches out almost without thinking and pulls Bart into a one armed hug. “Yeah, I’m getting that.”

Bart beams up at him for a second and then squirms away.

Then Felicity says, “All right I’ve got most of the documentation. What’s your cover story?”

“Cover story?”

“You can’t just have a kid randomly popping up in your life. Barry, I thought you would have had this down before you called me.”

Barry, feeling lightheaded, stammers an apology and hangs up.

* * *

“I’ll take him,” Wells says. “I have been in the public eye, but I have the means, and it might be nice to have a personal scandal instead of the parade of my professional ones.”

Barry squeezes his eyes shut, trying to think of how to word his objection.

Caitlin beats him to it. “No. Absolutely not.”

“Yeah man,” Cisco adds. “We all love you, but Bart calls you _evil grampa_.”

Caitlin glances to Barry. “And then there’s the unique challenges of dealing with an unruly child who’s also a speedster.”

And Harrison Wells, though none of them like to directly address it, is in a wheelchair.

“You want to ask Joe about taking him in?” Cisco asks. “Because of all the parents out there, he’s got to be pretty uniquely qualified.”

“It has to be me,” Barry says. He feels unsteady on his feet. “I can’t ask Joe to do that. I’ll do it.”

“Mr. Allen, you understand this is a child. Added to your duties as a CSI and as the Flash…”

“He’s a kid,” Barry says. “He’s a kid and I’m the only family he has. I can’t leave him alone.”

“We need to talk cover story,” Caitlin says. “The resemblance between the two of you should take care of most questions.”

“But Dad’s been in jail since I was nine and both he and mom were only children. I doubt we can pass him off as a cousin or a half-brother.” Barry swallows. “The best story I can come up with is that I had a kid really, really young.”

“Barry.” Caitlin’s eyes are wide. “You can’t…”

“No,” Cisco says. “He’s right. It would explain a lot. Resemblance, why Barry wouldn’t have known about him. Why we don’t have pictures. We’d just have to come up with a reason why he’s suddenly got custody.”

Wells steeples his fingers against his chin. “With the number of people who died when the particle accelerator exploded, we shouldn’t have a shortage of candidates.”

“That’s it then?” Caitlin says. “Just like that, Barry has a kid?”

“I think so,” Barry replies. “I’d love to keep it close to truth, but he can’t be my grandson.”

And because Barry has the worst timing in the world, that’s the only thing Bart overhears as he swoops into the room. His eyes go wide, tears collecting in the corner. “You want me to go back,” he says.

“Bart,” Barry tries to explain, “I know we should have included you in this discussion but…”

It’s too late to get the words out. Bart bolts from the room.

“I swear the kid is all impulse,” Cisco says. “Didn’t even take a second to process--”

“He’s a kid,” Caitlin cuts him off, “what do you expect?”

“Point,” Cisco concedes. “Though for the record, Impulse? That’s definitely the name.”

“Cisco,” Caitlin says, “We are not giving a code name to a twelve-year-old.”

Wells mouths, _Go_. and Barry loses the rest of their conversation as he tears after Bart.

* * *

He finds the kid quickly enough, at a pizza joint, ordering food he has no means to pay for. Barry stomps out the start of a friction-induced fire in his shoes, smooths down his hair and slips into the booth across from him. The waitress looks relieved to see adult supervision and Barry confirms that no, three large pizzas was definitely the right order.

“Youcanjustgo,” Bart says. “I’llbefine.”

“You’re a kid,” Barry says. “I’m not turning you loose on the streets. I’m not sure Central City could survive.”

Bart scowls. “Yousaidyoucouldn’tbemygrampa.”

Barry nods. “Because I _can’t_ be your grampa. It’s impossible I’m twenty-six and you’re twelve. The math doesn’t work. We thought about trying to make you my brother, but that won’t work either because my mom’s dead and my dad’s been in prison since I was a kid.”

“Butyouaremygrampa.”

“We need a story that we can show the rest of the world,” Barry says as the waitress slides the first pizza between them. “One that will let you stay with me.”

“Whatkindofstory?” Bart asks around a mouthful of pizza.

“Say that again after you’ve finished your bite. Slower.” If Barry’s going to start parenting, he may as well start now.

“What kind of story?” Bart repeats.

Barry takes a deep breath. “Since I can’t be your grampa, we figured it would work best if we said I was your dad… If that’s alright with you.”

“I get to stay?” Bart asks. His speech is slow and deliberate, his eyes hopeful. “You want me to stay?”

“Yeah, kiddo,” Barry answers. “I want you to stay.”

**Author's Note:**

> I'd say no plans for a sequel, but eventually Iris has to find out and... well...


End file.
